Newly-hatched mallard chicks
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| Mallard ducklings |
A
nestful of newly hatched mallard ducklings at Flatford Wildlife Garden. Aren’t they sweet?
When
I say newly hatched, I mean it. The mother duck was sitting on a nestful of
eggs the night before, and when the volunteers came in next morning to open up,
the nest was full of ducklings. Ten of them.
Before
the garden opened to the public the same morning, the mother duck had chivvied
her babies out of the nest and trotted them off to the river. With a bit of
help from one of the volunteers who made her a temporary tunnel under the fence
to lead the ducklings through.
(Mother
ducks never seem to realise that although they can fly over fences and walls
their babies can’t, and that picking a nest site in an enclosed area might not be
the most inspired choice. Like the duck some years ago who decided to nest in
the enclosed central courtyard of a prestigious office complex, so when the
eggs hatched the caretaker had to carry the ducklings through the shiny glass
atrium in a bucket with the mother duck quacking anxiously alongside. Fortunately
the ‘aaah!’ factor of fluffy ducklings means human help is frequently on hand.)
These
ducklings are now probably swimming about on the River Stour somewhere in
Dedham Vale, delighting the visitors.
Flatford
Wildlife Garden also has several nest boxes occupied by blue-tits and
great-tits. Some of the nest boxes are fitted with cameras connected to TV
screens in the visitor centre, so you can watch the chicks and the parent birds
feeding them, without disturbing them.
Update (30 April): one set of great-tit eggs have hatched, so you can watch the chicks on screen, and the blue-tits are expected to hatch within a day or two.
Flatford
Wildlife Garden is open every day from April to October, 10.30 am to 4.30 pm,
free entry. Details on the website here.
2 comments:
So fluffy! I loved the story of the nest in the office courtyard, too. Sounds like something of a bird-brain, that mother duck, but I'm glad everything turned out alright for her and her chicks in the end. :)
Cute, aren't they? It's not often you see mallard chicks in the nest because they don't stay there long; the mother takes them down to the water within hours, presumably as soon as they've dried out and have figured out how their legs work. As soon as they're on the water they can start feeding themselves, which is pretty impressive.
My first thought was that the courtyard duck was a bit dim; but you could argue that she was really very clever, since she got a predator-free space and a free ride to the river for the ducklings. Somehow, though, I doubt that she was really looking that far ahead :-)
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